


I'm a wreck (but you understand)

by cold_nights_summer_days



Series: Anchor [12]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: ! - Freeform, Comfortember, Day eleven, Dialogue Heavy, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Gen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Has Issues, Peter Parker has PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which are not the best for superheros with ptsd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27509656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: Day Eleven: PTSD - it's the Fourth of July, and even though Tony hates the fireworks, he doesn't want to ruin the holiday for Peter :)----title from Best Part by The Score
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Anchor [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996039
Comments: 13
Kudos: 118
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	I'm a wreck (but you understand)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is. I honestly didn't know what to write but didn't want to break my streak of actually doing a daily challenge for once. hope y'all like it!

Fourth of July was just around the corner, and honestly, Tony was not thrilled about it. Fourth of July had never been his favorite holiday, mostly because it reminded him of Steve Rogers, which inevitably reminded him of his father, and that wasn’t pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. Now it still reminded him of Steve Rogers, which was sour for different reasons these days, and the fireworks didn’t do much besides trigger his PTSD.

All around, it wasn’t his favorite. But Peter seemed excited about it, so Tony pretended to be excited about it for him. He couldn’t take the holiday away from him. Besides, he’d already talked to his therapist to get extra tips on how to manage the extra stress of the day.

It was still going to suck, but it was going to be worth it to make Peter happy.

On the actual day, Tony got a call from Rhodey. He was back home visiting family, but called regularly to check in.

_“Are you sure that this is the best plan? I really think you should just be honest about not liking the fireworks. What are you gonna do, pretend that you like the fourth of July for the rest of your life?”_

“Yep. That’s exactly what I’m going to do, and you’re not going to tell him.”

_“I want it on record that I think this is a bad idea.”_

“You think a lot of the things I do are bad ideas.”

_“They are. And every time I tell you that, and you don’t listen, and you come back to me and say, “Rhodey, that was bad idea. Why’d you let me do that?” Well this time I want this conversation on record so that later I can say I told you so.”_

“Have you had coffee yet today?”

_“How is that relevant?”_

“Because you’re being particularly crabby today.”

_“I’m not being crabby. You’re being stubborn.”_

“I am not.”

_“You are, too.”_

“Can we agree to disagree?”

_“Sure, but only because I know otherwise, we’ll never get off the phone.”_

Later that day, once it was dark, Tony and Peter took the elevator up to the helipad to watch the fireworks. Peter was bouncing from foot to foot, and Tony attributed it to excitement. _How am I supposed to tell him I can’t handle the Fourth of July if he’s this excited about it?_

They settled into the mass of blankets and pillows that they’d brought up earlier and waited. It didn’t take long before the fireworks started to light up the sky, and Tony was flinching with every one. His therapist had given him some deep breathing techniques to manage the anxiety, and Tony was trying them, but they weren’t working.

_I am not ruining this for Peter,_ Tony told himself angrily. _Why can’t I handle just this one simple thing?_

Peter glanced over for a minute with a worried expression.

“Are you okay?” He asked Tony, shouting over the most recent firework boom. Tony took another deep breath and nodded.

“I’m great,” He responded. Peter watched him skeptically but didn’t press. When Tony glanced at him a moment later, he swore that Peter’s smile looked forced.

“Is it too loud?”

“What?”

“The fireworks. Are they too loud? I should have thought about that earlier,” Tony said. He was trying to remember where Peter’s noise cancelling earbuds were. They might still be in his backpack downstairs—

“Kind of, but I don’t mind. If it gets worse I’ll go get the headphones,” Peter responded. Tony assured him that he didn’t mind going down to get them himself since it was an excuse to escape, but Peter said he didn’t want him to miss the fireworks just because of him.

“But then you’d have to miss them,” Tony countered. Peter shrugged.

“That’s okay.”

“Don’t you want to watch them?”

“I thought you wanted to watch them,” Peter said.

“Yeah, of course I do.”

Peter gave him the “I don’t believe you” look. After living with him for as long as he had, Peter had learned (rather quickly) how to see through his white lies. Tony watched while Peter put together the pieces.

“Did you actually want to watch the fireworks, or did you only agree to it because you thought I wanted to?” 

“I thought you wanted to watch them. That’s why we’re up here, right?”

Peter laughed.

“I thought _you_ wanted to watch them. I’m not really a fan of fireworks anymore because they remind me of when I was, well, when I was homeless. Sometimes I’d hear random gunshots at night and it’s hard to differentiate between fireworks and gunshots.”

_Oh my god. Rhodey was right. I should have just told him._

“Oh. I wish you’d have said something. I don’t like fireworks either but I didn’t want to ruin the holiday for you,” Tony admitted. “Could have saved us a lot of trouble.”

“Sorry,” Peter said sheepishly. Tony pulled him in for a tight hug as the next round of fireworks.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re just going to make sure that you have a passport next year so we can take a fun vacation instead of spending a stressful PTSD filled night hiding in the penthouse.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a lot more fun,” Peter agreed. “So where are you thinking of going, then?”

“Somewhere warm and quiet. What do you think about the Italian countryside?”

“I can't speak Italian.”

“Don’t worry, it’s like Spanish. Plus, I’ll teach you before we go.”

“Really?”

“Of course. It’ll be fun,” Tony promised.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, darlings!
> 
> my best friend made a meme to go with this fic, actually! so here  
> 
> 
> If you want to read more, check out/subscribe to the series!
> 
> [Here's my tumblr! ](https://funky--lil--spider.tumblr.com/)  
>    
> Also, I've opened my comissions if you'd be interested in that!
> 
> [Support me on Ko-Fi, or commission a fic!](https://ko-fi.com/cold_nights_summer_days)


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